Daughter recounts day of tragedy for DeLucas

Thursday

Jan 26, 2006 at 12:01 AM

MONICA BRYANTStaff Writer

OCALA - It took just a few hours for the DeLuca family's dream ski vacation to become a nightmare last week.
Frank DeLuca's only son, Frankie, was seriously injured in a horrific ski accident while vacationing with family members in Vail, Colo., on Jan. 19. Later that night, Carole DeLuca, Frank's wife of 39 years, suffered a massive heart attack and died.
Wednesday, DeLuca was home in Ocala, where he was making funeral arrangements for his wife, but he also longed to be with his battered son in Colorado.
"It's a pretty difficult time right now," DeLuca said. "If anybody ever had to go through a situation like this, and a lot of people do, mine is probably a double whammy.
"It's something that I never expected," he said. "It's almost like it's been a giant nightmare. It's a dream that I just want to wake up from."
While DeLuca, owner of DeLuca Toyota in Ocala, tends to family matters here, his daughter-in-law, Melissa DeLuca, is working on a plan to have Frankie DeLuca, 38, flown back to Ocala.
The funeral service is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, the same day the family was expected to return home from their two-week trip to the Ritz-Carlton at Bachelor Gulch.
DeeDee Denney, the couple's daughter, still cries when she talks about the days she spent with her mom and dad and the last conversations she had with her mother.
Denney, her husband Bryan, and their two children flew to Colorado on Jan. 10 to spend time with her parents at a timeshare the family purchased in May.
"The skies were like they were today. Not a cloud in the sky; just absolutely gorgeous," Denney said Wednesday. "We had the most wonderful time going to restaurants every night, skiing every day, sleigh rides. You name it, we did it."
Denney said her brother Frankie and his family arrived at the resort later.
On the day of Frankie's accident, Carol DeLuca, 60, decided not to go skiing but stayed at the resort to fix lunch for the family. Frankie and his father headed to the slopes.
Frank DeLuca, 61, skied down Bachelor Gulch ahead of his son, who is an advanced skier, so he could watch him come down.
"It was their first run. They literally had only been on the slopes 10 minutes," Denney said. "It's not a hard run. It's the run we keep taking our girls on. (Frank) was just ahead of him and he thought Frankie was behind him."
He wasn't.
Denney said her dad told her he heard a moaning sound in the early-morning quiet. Moments later, a few skiers coming down the mountain told DeLuca there had been an accident.
"My dad knew right then," she said. "He threw off his skis and kept trucking up the mountain." By the time he got to his son, the ski patrol was already there.
Carole DeLuca was hysterical when she called her daughter to tell her about the accident.
"My mom was screaming and I couldn't understand her," Denney said. "All I heard was he hit a tree. He's in critical condition."
Frankie DeLuca was taken by ambulance to the hospital and is in intensive care with a broken left femur, a shattered right arm, a dislocated hip, three cracked vertebrae and ribs, and a collapsed lung. He is expected to be in a wheelchair for three months and then will have to use a walker for several months, but doctors expect him to make a full recovery, Denney said.
Hours after the accident, Frank and Carole DeLuca were watching David Letterman on late-night TV. She couldn't figure out how to shut the TV off with the remote control, so he shut it off for her and gave her a kiss goodnight.
Frank DeLuca woke up about midnight and thought his wife was asleep in the chair, but then he realized something was wrong. He started CPR right away and his grandson called paramedics.
Denney said when she got the call, she thought it was about her brother, but it wasn't. She called her father in the ambulance, and he said: "It doesn't look good DeeDee. It doesn't look good."
A few hours later, another call came. Her mother had passed away.
"He's going to be lost without her," Denney said of her father. "She did everything. They were high school sweethearts. They've been together since they were 16."
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Monica Bryant may be reached at monica.bryant@starbanner.
com or (352) 867-4131.